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Obesity: Associations with Acute Mountain Sickness

From the Institute for Exercise and Environmental Medicine, Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas, and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, Dallas, Texas, and the Institute of High Altitude Medicine, Qinghai Medical College, Xining, Qinghai, China.

Acknowledgments: The authors thank all laboratory staff, hypobaric chamber staff, and biochemistry laboratory technicians for their contributions and support.

Grant Support: By the U.S. Wilderness Medical Society and the American Lung Association (CI-015-N).

Our principal finding was that obese participants have higher AMS scores than nonobese participants during a 24-hour exposure to simulated altitude of 3658 m. Thus, obesity seems to be associated with the development of AMS. Also, the response of Sao2 with exposure differed between nonobese and obese men; obese men had lower values than nonobese men. These findings suggest that impaired breathing during sleep may be an important pathophysiologic mechanism for the increased levels of AMS in obese individuals.

Figures

Data are displayed as boxplots, which indicate the distribution of AMS scores within each group. The bottom of the box represents the lower 25th quartile of scores, and the top of the box represents the 75th quartile of scores. The dashed line represents the median. The vertical lines show the largest or lowest value observed outside the box. The black circle shows the position of extreme outlier. The interaction between AMS score and group with exposure was significant ( < 0.001).

Comparison of Sao 2 at sea level, during the daytime, and during sleep at night in nonobese (n= 10) and obese (n= 8) participants.o2P

Data are displayed as boxplots, which indicate the distribution of acute mountain sickness scores within each group. The bottom of the box represents the lower 25th quartile of scores, and the top of the box represents the 75th quartile of scores. The dashed line represents the median. The vertical lines show the largest or lowest value observed outside the box. Black circles show the position of extreme outliers. The interaction between Sa values with exposure and group was significant ( < 0.001).

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Summary for Patients

The summary below is from the full report titled “Obesity: Associations with Acute Mountain Sickness.” It is in the 19 August 2003 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine (volume 139, pages 253-257). The authors are G. Ri-Li, P.J. Chase, S. Witkowski, B.L. Wyrick, J.A. Stone, B.D. Levine, and T.G. Babb.

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